~ Perspective from Vancouver

Do We Need a Sunshine Coast Fixed Link? – 1

This week our ‘Sunshine Coast correspondent,’ John Whistler,* begins a series that will provide background and comment on yet another massive road-and-bridge project by the Province.

Do We Need a Sunshine Coast Fixed Link?

The BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) has just opened their public consultation process to review a fixed link to the Sunshine Coast that would replace the existing BC Ferries service with various combinations of ferries, bridges, roads and tunnels.

Over the next few weeks I will further examine these issues:

What are the various trade-offs, costs and benefits?

What are the implications for more active transportation modes, for public transit and for those with mobility challenges and cannot drive?

What are the environmental implications?

How would financing fit into the current provincial tolling strategy – and would this be subject to a local referendum?

Why is this issue a priority and important?

What do you think about this and what issues are important? Give your comments either here in Comments or with MoTI before the November 8 deadline.

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* John is a regular traveller to the Sunshine Coast to visit family in Sechelt and friends in Garden Bay. Typically he travels by public transit, though in the summer likes to ride his bike and will occasionally use a car.

He is a local advocate of active transportation and a Director of Pedal, which operates Our Community Bikes. He served as Chair of the Vancouver Bicycle Advisory Committee from 1990 to 1996 and was a member of the Active Transportation Policy Council from 2013 – 2014.

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25 thoughts on “Do We Need a Sunshine Coast Fixed Link? – 1”

These studies fundamentally miss the downstream impact of connecting a growing Sunshine Coast to the North Shore. The Lions Gate Bridge and Second Narrows Bridge are not even drawn on any of the maps produced for the study. Flawed and limited scope? Very disappointing.

Good point. Much of the volume increases on Hwy 1 through the North Shore are the result of: 1) the Sea-to-Sky widening, and 2) Squamish and Whistler growth (enabled by that widening). I’m sure the Ministry will offer to fill in that hole by digging another when the time comes.

There needs to be some realistic alternatives proposed to make accurate comparisons and value judgements.

That Big Bend of a highway makes me wonder if they are planning a 25,000 home subdivision in the mountains.

Because transporting people is a fraction of the cost of transporting cars in any mode, it stands to reason that a decent passenger ferry system could be implemented with connections to all Sunshine Coast communities and the Metro at less capital and per passenger cost (and subsidy) than paving paradise.

Commercial goods can be transported by truck ferry several times a week. The existing car ferries can be cut back a lot, and the fees increased to the actual unsubsidized level.

We know people in Gibsons and Sechelt who have been waiting for passenger ferries to downtown Vancouver for decades. At this rate, their young grandchildren will still be waiting when they are retired.

I think it is a VERY good idea to increase the “Lower Mainland” to include not only Squamish but also Sunshine coast communities as housing is far FAR cheaper there than crowded land-locked MetroVancouver.

ALL options should be on the table including passenger only ferries from Sechelt or Gibsons to downtown Vancouver, bridges, tunnels, fast bus services or increased ferry services as ferries are often crowded on weekends.

Of course, widening Lionsgate bridge and Second Narrows and/or a third crossing too should be on the table as a complete no-brainer.

Thomas, you keep mentioning widening Lions Gate Bridge but you never explain what will happen to the vehicles when they hit Georgia Street. Wouldn’t widening the bridge make traffic much worse for everyone, especially those wishing to drive in the downtown area of Vancouver? And if we widen IWMB, would that not lead to gridlock on the Upper Levels? So then we have to widen Hwy 1? Create a freeway to Squamish? Where will it end? How much will it cost?

Roadtolls / bridge tolls would help smooth out demand curve through bottlenecks like road to Squalish at 5pm, or Patullo, Massey, Lionsgate or Second Narrows bridges at 8:30 am. Common sense. But then, common sense is not so common.

Because the bridges are packed for too many hours in the day. Lionsgate bridge was built 80 (!!!!) years ago and still has the basically same design for a now far FAR larger W-Van and N-Van population.

W-Van and N-Van needs a triple decker bridge with train, car lanes and ped/bike lanes and/or a third crossing, perhaps a train/car tunnel.

North shore bridges are packed because they are FREE If they were priced at market with transit being FREE . It would be transit that was packed. instead . The Langdale ferry is close full cost recovery , If it ain “t broke don’t fix it

LANGDALE ferry NOT full cost recovery. It is about 70% cost recovery according to BC FERRY commissioner report. If they build a bridge the ferry subsidy will look like chump change using the same accounting principles ( interest & depreciation)

But they will get triple the traffic, huge population growth and vastly higher property taxes all along the Sunshine coast, and property value increases in the billions. Like the Guiness family did when they built Lionsgate bridge in the 1930’s !

10,000 homes or land parcels, going up $200,000 on average = $2B in increased property values. Times a 1% mill rate or 0.5% for the province = $10M in additional annual property taxes, plus new or old homes transacting at say $400,000 on average, say 1000 a year times @ $6000/year (1% on the first $200,000 plus 2% on the next $200,000) = another $6M in land transfer taxes .. so $16M in property related taxes alone for the province plus more tourists, shopper and businesses paying PST .. say another $10M extra so in total $26M .. more jobs, new houses, more hotels & restaurants

Paying 2% on a $1B loan for the new bridge @ $20M/ year .. peanuts and a GREAT INVESTMENT with positive cash-flow from day one for province !

If more people spend more money sprawling up the coast they will spend less money elsewhere in our local economy. If they spend less on housing (money that tends to circulate in our local economy) in far flung exurbs they will spend it on cars and gas that tends to leave our economy. Or they’ll use the savings for vacations elsewhere. There’s little reason to assume there is a net financial benefit to our economy or tax base.

Unless you’re developing for foreign investment that is. Is that what you want? Degrading our coast even further for profit? More and more parking lots and malls as far as the coast will go?

THOMAS 2% interest for fixed link? BC ferries has to pay between 4.45 % & 5.92%. because the B C government pretends it is a private corporation. Any rational comparison between ferries & a bridge has to be on a level playing field

It’s clear to me why the Province is pursuing this as a possible major Provincial investment in road infrastructure linking jobs in metro Vancouver to these unique slower rural places and taking away our beloved ferries and replacing the experience of being in a car and not a shared passage, just like all that is offered to most North American folks…apparently what it is about is this: they want more bedroom sprawling communities on the Sunshine Coast communities that are now slower, rural, nice smaller communities and in a setting of nature.

Could we please refocus the Province on building rapid transit, walkable communities in the lower mainland? And continue to let the ferries provide the lovely passage, a journey across Howe Sound, to be enjoyed to the Sunshine Coast

I think it is a good thing that our Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast are more time consuming to travel to. There is a wonderful sense of passage getting on a ferry and it does temper the character of these places and respects them as slower more rural, small community places, rather than sprawling bedroom communities with folks commuting to jobs in Metro Vancouver.

Meanwhile, in the more urban areas, we need more certainty on investments into transit, biking and walking to create more high and medium density walkable communities that respect the Metro Vancouver plan, as well as providing single family homes who prefer that choice of housing.

Could we please have some clarity on the intent and funding for Provincial and Translink investments in transit, renewals of our bridges like the Patullo, cycling routes.

So that is my take on this focus on building roads to the Sunshine Coast…it’s such a lovely place and some of that is a result of the ferry connection and riding a ferry somewhere to more remote communities of BC, defines a unique and valued experience of living here in our region of our world, a lovely sense of shared passage on the water anticipating where we are travelling to…why change that.

In terms of outdoor recreation, the Powell River Road Link would be fabulous, but it is unlikely to ever be built. The Langdale Road Link is the one which would be mostly likely to be built, but it’s hard to image that a provincial Liberal government would drop $1.5 billion to provide a new highway to an NDP riding.